“House Republicans plan to hold hearings, perhaps within the next three weeks, to fight back against a new Obama administration deportation policy that will allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States.”

“The hearings will likely focus on the American jobs Republicans say will be lost to undocumented immigrants who will remain in the country, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), chairman of the House immigration subcommittee, hinted on Tuesday.”

“The President of the United States and all his federal appointees take an oath to the Constitution that requires that they `take care that the laws be faithfully executed…I am calling for Congressional hearings on the Obama administration to put the President and all his cabinet members on notice that neither Congress nor the American people will tolerate such contempt for their own oath, the Constitution and the Rule of Law.”

Despite his career NumbersUSA ranking of A, Gallegly is simply not serious about his duty or – apparently – up to the job. It is pitiful to remember that when he was vaulted over King to take the Committee Chairmanship in January, our Washington Watcher was still hoping Gallegly would carry the war into the Open Borders camp by taking up King’s Birthright Citizenship reform bill. Now, it appears, he is not even strong enough to prevent Congress getting mugged on its own turf.

“We`ve been disappointed in the debate so far this year,” said Roy Beck, founder of Numbers USA… “The biggest problem for most of these candidates is that they haven`t said anything”

…The matter is especially frustrating given President Barack Obama`s recent announcement that the government would review 300,000 pending deportation cases and allow some undocumented immigrants to stay…GOP candidates have yet to make any major statements on the issue, just a few throwaway comments on the campaign trail.

“You sort of expect that you would hear the people who want his job to be making a fuss about this, and so far it hasn`t happened,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform…

GOP candidates could be keeping quiet on immigration for several reasons, Mehlman said. They don`t want to anger the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which supports some foreign-worker programs and opposes crackdowns on employers for hiring undocumented immigrants…”

Apparently Foley did some real work:

“The campaigns declined to comment on the Obama deportation policy or their own immigration platforms more broadly for this article.”

Not one of them wanted publicity on a contentious issue dear to the hearts of many of their prospective voters?

Other than brave loners like Lou Barletta and Mo Brooks, Republican leaders seem desperate to avoid saying anything substantive on this huge national existential problem. Even when they could hide behind the genuine issue of Constitutional malfeasance and abuse of the separation of powers.

Why? The analogy is to the well-known procedure of finding new planets by considering gravitational fields and orbital paths.

There is something out there exerting terrifying force on all of these people. Even the Presidency, apparently, is not a big enough prize. What are they afraid of? Can the Chamber of Commerce really be so powerful?